Death Will Arrive, Dear Warrior
by Teddy R. Lupin
Summary: The life of Sirius Black, up until the quiet funeral service that Remus and Tonks hold for him.  Very vague, hardly uses names at all. Just feelings.  Slight Lupin/Tonks if you squint.


Officially the shortest thing I've ever written. I think. Dunno. I promise, to you guys that are reading my other stories, that I AM working on them! Just...very...slowly...

Yeah, anyway...this is also the most vague thing I've ever written. It's based on a quote I got in English class, "Death will arrive, dear warrior, to take you away." It had something to do with Beowulf. :D

My first-ever fanfiction based upon Sirius Black!

Dedicated to my own personal Padfoot (there's a ton of them, I guess) and _**Nymphadora Andromeda Lupin**_.

Lupin/Tonks if you squint. I suppose it could be taken as Sirius/Remus, but...that's not how I wrote it. Lupin's devastated at the loss of his best friend, nothing more.

_**Death Will Arrive, Dear Warrior**_

A flash, and he was eleven, meeting a black-haired, bespectacled boy aboard the Hogwarts Express.

A flash, and he was fourteen, flirting with a girl whose name he didn't know, just for the sheer pleasure of it.

A year later, he took her to bed and left her to wake up alone.

A flash, and he was seventeen, graduating school, leaving the good memories behind and entering a darker world, joining the only resistance group that held hope that the unknown, unnamed Dark Lord would one day be deleted.

He fought with his best friends by his side.

A flash, and he was twenty-one. His friends were dead, and he was charged for handing them over to the one man he swore to always hate.

He was sent to Azkaban prison.

The traitor.

That _rat_, the traitor.

Twelve years.

A flash, and he was thirty-three.

And he was there. The traitor, on the cover of none other than the Daily Prophet. The rat, on the shoulder of a boy.

His senses tingled.

Danger.

His godson was in danger.

Suddenly, the man was gone, replaced by a dog, seemingly made of nothing but shadow.

The Grim.

A flash, and his godson's hands were closing around his neck, a wand pointing in his face.

The boy's features were lined with hatred and pain.

Betrayer.

_You __killed __them_, he said.

A flash, and an old friend appeared…an old friend long forgotten.

Moony.

The one he left behind.

Twelve years.

Alone.

Moony.

His only living friend. His brother.

A flash, and his godson is in danger again, this time from inside the only place considered to be safe.

Hogwarts.

Home.

Not safe.

_He__'__s __back_, said the Headmaster, _he__'__s __back._

An old coot, the paper calls the wizened professor. The boy who lies, the press calls his godson.

But he knows the truth. He knows the falsities they tell.

They'd said it was him who'd killed his friends, hadn't they?

The house.

Not home.

Not since he'd been in his teens, on the top of the world.

But it'd stopped feeling like home a long while before then.

Had it ever truly been home anyway?

His memories pass by in a flash of light. They seem like so long ago, now.

His brother.

His baby brother.

Rangled into becoming something he didn't know, murdered, for a cause he was too young to understand.

Regulus.

The hatred.

_Blood __traitor_, he'd been called, _you __are __no __brother __of __mine._

But he was, always.

Always and forever.

He'd seen her. He swore he had. That one and only love.

_I __think __I__'__m __going __mad, __Remus_, he'd admitted to his closest friend, _I __feel __locked __inside. __Gone. __Deteriorating._

And maybe he was.

A flash, and his godson was in danger, how many times had it been, now?

The Ministry.

The Department.

The Mystery.

The veil.

The Dark Lord, here.

Bellatrix, the estranged cousin, there. Here.

A cocky grin and a curse.

_Can't you do better than that?_

This time, a final flash. A flash of green light that hit him squarely in the chest.

Then, nothingness.

The black abyss.

And Sirius Black knew no more.

A tear.

Brown hair, only brown. Pink no more, barely a memory.

_Shh_, said the only one left, _shh_.

_It'll all be okay._

But even as he says the words, he knows that it'll never be all right again.

Strength.

Strength only for her.

In his solitude, he breaks down.

_Why, __Sirius, __why_, the devastated best friend pleaded. _Why __did __you __leave __us?_

Why did you leave _me_?

The next sun rose, and he moved on.

The brown hair. The light hair. The grey hair.

A sign of a life half-lived.

A secret service in memory of the friend that made the greatest sacrifice for those who he loved most dear.

Remus Lupin bent down and whispered brokenly,

_Death __will __arrive, __dear __warrior, __to __take __you __away_.

**_Fin._**

Well, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it...I listened to the song "This is War" by 30 Seconds to Mars while writing the final draft of this, and I really recommend it...the HP video based on it is amazing.

I hope to write something sort of like this again, it was awesome because I was able to get it done in about half an hour, and I really don't have much time these days, but it was so satisfying, and I hope...yeah...

Review please! Leave me an inspirational or deep quote and a character you want me to focus on, and I'll write it for you. :D

Always (yes, I had to say it),

TRL


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